


on the roof, her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you

by American_Pandora



Series: and they would smile at the beauty of destruction [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, semi-canon, the Dance of the Dragons, the tales of mushroom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 15:41:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12609964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/American_Pandora/pseuds/American_Pandora
Summary: Eventually, though, Alyn speaks up. “I hear it has been decided that Rhaena will marry Garmund Hightower?” He poses it as a question, letting her correct him if he’s wrong.Oh, what pitiful creatures they have all turned out to be, these dragons with and without wings both





	on the roof, her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you

* * *

**135 A.C., King’s Landing**

* * *

She’s on her back on the roof of the Dragon Pit (oh, what pitiful creatures they have all turned out to be, these dragons with and without wings both) looking at the stars, when Alyn finds her. 

He doesn’t say anything for a time at all, and Baela appreciates that. The silence is companionable, so different to the noise of the Red Keep that is anything but, bordering on hostile. 

Eventually, though, Alyn speaks up. “I hear it has been decided that Rhaena will marry Garmund Hightower?” He poses it as a question, letting her correct him if he’s wrong. 

The way he speaks it, hesitant and careful of every word, reveals how he hopes he’s not. That was the thing about Alyn, Baela thought; he was not born with an ounce of deceit or guile in his veins. He was honest, blunt, his emotions easily readable on his broad face. 

“Yes. Rhaena volunteered, since she has already got to marry once for love. Besides, the Hightowers are proud bastards, and they would rather have the beautiful widow than the scarred maiden.” Baela snorted, something like anger but not quite- the ghost of it, perhaps, and an echo of resentment mixed with acceptance- laying on her back to face the stars. “For being the ones who lost the war, the Hightowers sure are picky in their concessions.” 

Alyn is quiet, lying back next to her. “The Blacks won’t just allow the Greens to marry a princess. They’ll demand you, or Aegon, all in the name of fairness.” 

A bitter taste overcomes Baela’s tongue. “They’ll touch my brother over my cold, dead body. They had their princess when Rhaena married Corwyn Corbray. Aegon will marry who he wants next or they can take their complaints up with my sword.” 

They descend into silence once more. 

Alyn thinks on the girl next to him. She had been betrothed to Jacaerys Velaryon once- his brother, the courts thought. They were wrong. Alyn knew it hadn’t been a love match, but that was what highborns did. 

The two had been the best of friends. If Rhaena was the person who Baela was closest to, then Jace was second. Addam often said the boy was her second twin, and it had killed her when Jace died, hurt her just as much as the death of Moondancer who was a _part_ of her in a way Alyn could never understand, not even when Addam tried to explain his bond with Seasmoke. 

Jace had trusted her enough to tell her of Arna. Alyn only knew from the mouth of Lord Corlys, who thought no one else knew the secret, and that someone should. 

That was not his secret to tell, but another was. Suddenly, he could not keep it in his mouth any longer.

“Laenor Velaryon isn’t my father!” 

“Jace got married and has a babe on Lord Cregan’s bastard sister!” 

Alyn and Baela looked at each other, hands clasped over their mouths, giggling like children and not the adults of twenty they were. 

“You first, my lady.” Alyn intoned seriously, though his eyes sparkled with the laughter they had just shared. 

Baela nodded her head and took a shaky breath, scooting closer to Alyn so that their legs and arms touched, he had to strain to hear, and no one could overhear. 

“Jace... he fell in love with Lord Cregan’s bastard sister, Arna. He married her before the heart tree, at Winterfell. It’s invalid in the eyes of half the kingdom, but what use did that boy ever have for the Seven, or for Gods in general? Anyway, he wed her a week before he returned to Dragonstone, because Arna was with child. Jace was ecstatic when he found out, he truly loved the girl within moments of meeting her, I think.” A sad smile stretched out on her lips in a manner so distracting Alyn almost forgot to pay attention to the rest of what she said. “Jace told me about it immediately, of course, he could never keep a secret from me, and then I made him tell Rhaena because I _don’t_ keep secrets from my twin. Anyway, Arna gave birth to a son, a boy, who she named Joss. It was as close to Jace as she could get without giving away to the world she had just birthed his son, which Lord Stark insisted she hide. Jace would have been ecstatic, Al, he would have been overjoyed.”

There was a pause. Pearls fall down Baela’s cheeks in the moonlight, and it takes Alyn a moment to realize they’re just normal tears illuminated by the moon. 

“But Jace _died_.” 

“He was a brave man, Bae,” Alyn says as Baela interrupts him. 

“He was a _boy_! He was a _child_! We were all just _children_ , you and me and Addam and Jace and Luke and Rhae and Joff, playing at games where we didn’t understand the consequences!” 

She starts crying again, violent sobs racking her body, causing her to curl up into herself. It is not proper, Alyn knows, but he is a lowborn bastard raised too high, and Baela has never really been a proper lady at all. 

He scoops her up and places her on his lap, wrapping his arms around her. Not too tightly- he does know that the burns and scars she got from Aemond’s dragon pain her sometimes, and itch others. Just tight enough to let her know she’s safe. 

The sobs calm down as Alyn makes cooing noises and sings nursery rhymes and hymns like his mother used to do when he or Addam were upset. Cautiously, he decides to stroke her hair. He has memories of Rhaenyra stroking her stepdaughter’s hair, and of both Baela and Rhaena stroking Jaehaera’s hair when she was upset. 

He can barely hear the voice from where Baela has buried her face deep in his chest. “They’re here. Arna and Joss, I mean. Lord Cregan brought them with him, when he came during the Hour of the Wolf. When anyone asks, I just tell them Lord Corlys sired Joss on Arna, who had come south to help the war effort, who he met while he grieved my grandmother. When Aegon comes of age, the first thing he’ll do is legitimize Joss. It’s not like there’s anyone alive to refute my version of events. Besides, Joss is a wonderful boy, and Arna is the best lady’s maid I’ve ever had.” At this, she gives Alyn a hard stare. 

Alyn nodded, unaware that he was still rocking and stroking Baela’s hair. “The Sea Snake was full of confessions on his deathbed. He told me about Arna and Joss and his desire to see them legitimized, though he didn’t tell me they had stayed.” He is silent, once more. “Corlys Velaryon is my father, not my grandfather. Laenor Velaryon is my brother. Jace was my nephew. You are my niece.” There is another pause, this one longer, filled with something that has been a long time coming. “If It were not for that fact, I would have asked you to marry me long ago.” 

Baela moves sharply in his arms, and he fears he has offended her, when she takes his head in her hands. “Truly?” She whispers harshly, queerly. “Look me in the eye, Alyn, and tell me what you just told me.” 

His heart hammers in his chest, and he wonders faintly if this is a trap. “I would marry you, Baela Targaryen, if-...“ The rest of what he had been going to say scrambles from his brain the moment she pulls his face to her and their lips meet. 

When she finally pulls away, his heart thrums a staccato beat so loud in his ears he barely hears what she whispers.

“Yes, Alyn, yes! I suppose it is a good thing the court believes you to be my uncle’s son, now, isn’t it? What is a niece marrying an uncle to a couple of Targaryens and Velaryons?” 

Baela’s face is beaming, just like the moon, the thin silver scars on her face stretched in a manner that must be painful. But it’s her eyes, sparkling with happiness, the color of lilacs that grew outside of his mother’s home on Hull, that truly captivate him. 

They look the same as when she used to fly on her dragon Moondancer. 

This, he determines, must be what it felt like to fly.

**Author's Note:**

> Quick Timeline for events relative to this story! (semi-canon events written in italic)
> 
> **136AC** : Rhaena Targaryen marries Garmund Hightower  
>  **135AC** : Baela Targaryen & Alyn Velaryon marry after a short betrothal  
>  **135AC** : Rhaena Targaryen becomes betrothed to Garmund Hightower after one year of mourning  
>  **134AC** : Ser Corwyn Corbray dies in an “accident.”  
>  **133AC** : Jaehaera Targaryen dies  
>  **132AC** : Rhaena Targaryen marries Ser Corwyn Corbray  
>  **131AC** : the Dance of The Dragons ends  
>  _130AC_ : Arna Snow gives birth to Jacaerys Velaryon’s son, Jossef Snow  
>  **129AC** : Jacaerys Velaryon dies in the Battle of the Gullet  
>  _129AC_ : Jacaerys Velaryon marries Arna Snow below the heart tree at Winterfell  
>  **129AC** : Jacaerys Velaryon visits Winterfell
> 
> * * *
> 
> The theory that Jacaerys married a bastard sister of Cregan Stark is told in The Tales of Mushroom, hence the semi-canon. The other semi-canon theory in this piece was that Addam and Alyn of Hull are truly Corlys Velaryon’s and not Laenor’s.


End file.
